Mr. Moe made the comments Wednesday following a private meeting with Justin Trudeau at the Saskatoon hotel where federal Liberal MPs are gathered this week for a caucus meeting just days before the return of Parliament on Monday.

The federal government has approved national carbon pricing legislation that requires provincial governments to enact minimum standards for putting a price on carbon emissions. Provinces had until Sept. 1 to submit their plans to Ottawa. The legislation allows Ottawa to impose a carbon tax as of Jan. 1 in provinces that fail to produce an acceptable plan. In that case, Ottawa says the carbon tax revenues would be returned to citizens from the provinces in which the tax was collected.